Learning the ropes on the road05-10-2001

The young pop punk band out of Calgary has set out on their third tour in just nine months. Considering the band's five members  Rich, Marek, Dave and brothers Rob and Sean  only jammed together for the first time in 1999, this latest road trip is pretty ambitious.

The entire Deville project is in fact quite ambitious. The quintet has already released a full length CD,
Pleasure To Burn
, on the well known Calgary indie label, Hourglass Records. The CD was produced by Blair Calibaba, known for his work with one of the most commercially recognized pop punk bands on the Canadian scene, Gob.

Upon completion of
Pleasure to Burn
, Deville was invited to tour with labelmates Belvedere and Of No Avail from the Netherlands. The two-month trip would take them to more than 30 venues across North America. The fast and furious trip was an eye opener for the five.

"I guess I had expected bigger and better shows," confides lead vocalist Rich. "But our band did get a lot tighter."

"In theory it was easy," says drummer Rob. "It was like a two month vacation. All we had to do was get out of the van, play, get in the van and follow the other bands down the road."

Despite the guidance of the more experienced bands, following them down the road wasn't always as easy as it should have been.

"Our van broke down in B.C. at the start of the tour," recalls Rich. "We had to come back to Alberta and my dad gave us his van. We were just leaving Calgary and the entire back wheel fell off. We almost died! We were cruising at about 120, sparks flying everywhere!"

The rest of the tour would prove a little safer and a lot more productive. Deville was introduced to the American indie label, Jumpstart Records which would go on to release
Pleasure To Burn
south of the border.

The band would also take valuable lessons from their seniors by observation.

"We would just watch them on stage because we were pretty boring. We would just stand there," laughs Rich. "We'd listen to how they talked to the crowd. Listen to how they made their songs flow together, that kind of stuff, just how to make it a better show overall."

A short rest and Deville was back at it. This time they not only had the pressure of headlining, but they also left their home turf for an entirely American tour. The trip would start with yet another setback.